A Scriptural Consideration entry

The child’s blanket stayed folded. The tent remained quiet. Sarah no longer laughed—not even bitterly. Years slipped by, each one a reminder that the promise had not yet come. But still, Abraham believed.

He didn’t believe because things made sense. He believed because he knew Jehovah.

By the time Isaac was born, Abraham was a hundred years old. His body was “already as good as dead,” and Sarah’s womb long past childbearing. Yet, as the apostle Paul wrote, “He did not waver in unbelief, but became powerful by his faith, giving God glory.” (Romans 4:20)

This was not wishful thinking. It was confidence in Jehovah’s timing, Jehovah’s power, and Jehovah’s love.

So what about us?

We wait too. Some wait for justice. Some for peace. Some for a child who hasn’t come home. Others wait in the shadow of chronic illness or stand quietly in grief. We may wonder if the silence means the answer won’t come.

But each return to our ministry, each quiet act of endurance, each prayer uttered without immediate relief—all of it becomes a living testimony: our faith is not in what we see. It is in who we know.

Earlier in that same passage, Paul describes Jehovah as “the One who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they are.” (Romans 4:17)

Faith like that doesn’t ignore the ache. It acknowledges it—and keeps going anyway.

Abraham’s story was written for us. Not to make the wait easier, but to make it clearer. Jehovah sees. Jehovah hears. And Jehovah never forgets a promise.

Even when your world is quiet, even when there’s no outward sign—walk on. The One who calls things into being is still speaking.

—w12 3/15 p. 11 ¶13